


caught between the branches and the roots

by noknockback



Series: kuroken week 2019 [3]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Confessions, Getting Together, M/M, day three: flowers, it's graduation time and kenma gives kuroo flowers, krknweek2019, kuroo's best wingmen yaku and kai help out, lapslock, with hidden meanings of course
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-18 22:30:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20199220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noknockback/pseuds/noknockback
Summary: kenma gives kuroo a bouquet of flowers upon his graduation.





	caught between the branches and the roots

**Author's Note:**

> title is from watchmaker by area 11

kuroo pulls at the annoyingly stiff collar of his uniform. 

while he’s used to wearing it on mondays after it’s been ironed by his mother, today is a special day, and she had sent it to get specially washed and starched by a washing company, so it’s especially scratchy today. his red tie feels too tight, but if he tried loosening it again, he was going to get an earful.

the ceremony goes by slowly, kuroo trying his best to remember and enjoy it to his fullest extent, because this is going to be the last time he can wear the uniform and stand here and say that he’s a student of nekoma high school. a red and white ribbon flower is pinned on the left of his uniform, and it’s when he’s handed his diploma and is facing the crowd to get his picture taken that he finally sees that familiar pudding head seated in the third row, with something in his hands.

the whole cohort lines up to take a final picture, and the ceremony ends with the principal’s last words, congratulating this year’s batch of third years on graduating and wishing them all the best on their future endeavours.

with all formality thrown out of the window, everyone rushes down the stage to find their friends and family, kuroo included. his mother pulls him into a hug, all care for keeping his uniform crisp and wrinkle free gone, telling him how proud she is of him while dabbing at her eyes with her sleeves. he smiles genuinely and thanks her, but then catches sight of kenma standing awkwardly a little way behind them, not wanting to intrude the moment.

his mother notices that his gaze is on something else, and smiles knowingly at her son, patting him on the back one last time with an encouragement of “go on. say hi to your lover boy for me.” he looks at her indignantly and protests, “hes not-!” but she has already walked off, waving a dismissive hand at him, probably on her way to talk to the other mothers.

luckily for kuroo, kenma had been standing just far enough away to not have heard any of that. he watches as the younger boy slowly approaches him, hands behind his back, a small smile tugging at his lips.

“congratulations on graduating.” he looks up at kuroo, hesitantly giving him the something that he had been hiding. it turns out to be a bouquet of flowers, small white and pale yellow ones, wrapped in off-white paper and finished off with a red ribbon to hold everything together. 

kuroo is stunned speechless—this is kenma, who has never given anyone a single flower before in his life because he simply doesn’t like them, much less a whole _ bouquet _, and yet here he is, pushing it into kuroo’s hands because he’s taking too long to take them himself. 

then again, kuroo supposes today _ is _ a special occasion; he’s graduating high school, after all. perhaps it’s a big enough event to lkenma that he’d go out of his way to buy congratulatory flowers for him.

he thanks kenma and clutches the flowers close to his chest, deciding not to make such a big fuss out of this, lest kenma gets annoyed at him. 

“are you coming with?” he asks, referring to going around and taking final pictures with classmates and talking to friends and enjoying their last moments as high school students. he knows kenma hates mingling with people, especially strangers, but it’s not like kenma liked flowers any better, and yet he had given kuroo a bouquet of them, so maybe today he’ll be different?

but no, it seems like the flowers are the only exception to his usual behaviour. kenma shakes his head and pats his sling bag, where kuroo can just about see the familiar light blue of the nintendo switch that kenma has been spending more and more time on recently. “then i’ll come find you later, okay?” 

kenma replies with a soft “okay”, before ambling off to wherever he was planning to hide out until kuroo is done being social. the aforementioned boy looks around to see if he can spot any of his friends, wanting to take a few last pictures with them as memory of his three years here.

he manages to find most of his classmates huddled in a shaded area of the courtyard, taking selfies and silly pictures and generally being a very noisy bunch, but they had just graduated, so no one’s stopping them. you would think a college preparatory class would be more serious than this, but no, they’re just a bunch of overworked teenagers who want to have fun. 

kuroo glances around and easily identifies yaku—by his height, of course, but if anyone asks it was from the hair. he struts over, resting his elbow on a shoulder and purposely putting all his weight on it, which elicits a yelp from the shorter and his hand is violently pushed off. 

“why so antisocial, yakkun?” kuroo drawls, eyeing the phone in yaku’s hands that he had been glued to, vehemently texting someone. "who's that?"

“no one,” comes his reply, too quick, so kuroo has an inkling about who it may be, and is about to tease yaku about it when the class president calls them all to take a class photo. yaku has to stand at the front to be seen, of course, and he shoots kuroo a sharp look that has him bite back another teasing remark, but he smirks at the other all the same. 

the two stay a little while longer for a few more group pictures before yaku suggests that they go find kai and take some with him. 

they find him sitting along the steps that lead from the courtyard to the cafeteria, smiling for some couple shots with a bunch of girls from his class. he catches sight of them and politely excuses himself, forming the third year trio of nekoma’s volleyball team. 

the three take a bunch of selfies, but it’s a mess, with kuroo holding the phone at such an angle that yaku looks especially short, causing the boy to kick kuroo’s shin and steal the phone from him to take the photos, tilting it downwards and getting kuroo’s head cropped out. in the end, kai has to step between them, as he always does, and take the picture at an angle where they all look good. 

“i’ve been meaning to ask,” yaku blurts out suddenly, when kai has sent the best photos to all of them, “who gave you those flowers?” he points at the yellow and white bouquet in kuroo’s hand. 

“why, jealous you didn’t get any?” kuroo smirks at him, dodging out of the way of yaku’s kick just in time as kai has to intervene once again and stop them from starting a war. 

he laughs at the shorter boy who’s being held back by kai, but then his eyes drop down to the flowers and his gaze turns into an endearing one. “kenma did,” he admits after a while.

the silence he’s met with is unnerving, to say the least. he looks up at them to see identical nonplussed expressions on their faces, both staring at him with wide eyes and mouths agape. 

“k-kenma gave you flowers?” comes kai’s astonished question. nodding, kuroo explains how he thinks it’s because graduation is a big event, so it’s just a one time thing, the only exception to the norm.

yaku, who’s said nothing so far, suddenly leans nearer to the bouquet, eyes narrowing as he stares closely at the flowers, particularly the white ones. “aren’t these… violets?”

kuroo’s about to say “they don’t look blue to me”, because everyone knows that violets are blue, right? but the shorter boy isn’t finished; he draws back and looks kuroo in the eyes. “in the language of flowers, the white ones mean ‘let’s take a chance at happiness’, if i remember correctly.” 

_ let’s take a chance at happiness? _

what’s that even supposed to _ mean_?

“what’s that supposed to mean?” he voices out, because would kenma even care for subliminal meanings like that? 

_ he would._

but kenma doesn’t even like flowers!

yaku stares at him with this _ look _, like he knows something that he definitely shouldn’t. “it’s used in the romantic sense,” he elaborates, and now kuroo’s the one staring, unable to move as his mind comprehends those words.

so then, that means that this is a-

“i think you should go and talk to kenma,” kai interjects at the same time yaku goes, “that means he likes you, you idiot.” 

kuroo whips out his phone and is going to call the boy, but realises that he probably wouldn’t be able to talk to him right now, so he resorts to texting.

**kuro:** where are you

“what am i supposed to say?” he turns to the two standing there, on the verge of panicking because _ there’s a chance that kenma likes me, too. _

“just ask him about the flowers,” yaku offers, “if he reacts then it means he definitely gave them to you with their meaning in mind.”

“what does the other one mean?” he points at the light yellow flowers. yaku shrugs, he’s never seen those kind before, and kuroo’s _ this _ close to pulling out his hair because _ he really needs to know. _

his phone vibrates with a new message, and it’s the fastest kuroo’s ever opened a text.

**kenma:** club room

kai calls out a “good luck!” behind him as kuroo sprints to the club rooms.

he makes it there in record time, leaning on the doorframe to catch his breath and ready himself for the conversation. this could either go really well or really badly. kuroo hopes with all his heart that it’s the former, and enters the room.

kenma’s there, seated in his usual slouched position against the shelves with his legs crossed and device in hand. he glances up at kuroo, greeting him with a small smile, “you finished so fast?”

kuroo takes a seat on the floor in front of him and holds out the bouquet. “kenma, about the flowers..”

his reaction is immediate. kenma twists his whole body to the side and drops his gaze back to the game, and- is his face turning_ red? _

kuroo _ really _hopes that yaku’s right. 

he decides not to ask further, wanting kenma to say it himself. the younger boy catches kuroo staring at him expectantly and hurriedly turns back away, then after a moment of silence, kenma mumbles something.

“hm?”

“i didn’t think you’d find out,” he repeats, still not facing him. kuroo stills. find out the flowers’ meanings? 

or something else?

he gingerly runs his finger over the flowers. “the white ones mean ‘let’s take a chance at happiness’”, he half asks, half states. kenma nods, a tiniest jerk of his head. “and the other one?”

it comes out in a quiet mumble. “i can’t live without you.” he flinches back at kuroo’s noise of surprise.

“shouyou,” he speaks again, too scared to hear what the older boy has to say, “shouyou said he’d tell you himself if i didn’t give you the flowers.”

“chibi-chan?” _ karasuno’s number ten, huh. _

“h-he said,” kenma swallows, “that confessing with flowers always worked.”

_ confessing? _

kuroo shoots up, and the action makes kenma shrink back even further, turning away almost entirely, but he reaches out and grasps his arm, so kenma has no choice but to face him.

“kenma, do you also…” he finally meets kuroo’s gaze, eyes shooting up at the word ‘also’, which is as good an answer as any**,** and the reddened tips of kenma’s ears just serve to further affirm what had been left unsaid.

feeling a sudden surge of courage, kuroo brings his hand up from where it was resting on kenma’s wrist to gently cradle his cheek, fingers tucking blonde hair behind his ears. he leans closer and murmurs, “can i?” 

kenma says nothing, darts his tongue out to wet his lips,

and kuroo kisses him.

it ends quickly, _ far _ too quickly for kuroo’s liking, and he’s about to ask him if he can do it again when the familiar jingle of kenma’s phone rings out.

kenma scrambles to get his phone from where it’s strewn on the floor, cheeks burning. already kuroo misses the feeling of holding kenma, but he sits patiently while the other boy checks his notifications.

“it’s shouyou.” kenma holds his phone up for kuroo to see, the message from karasuno’s decoy reading “kenma!!!!!! did it work????”

he lowers the phone to type a reply, but kuroo has an even better idea. he takes the phone from kenma, then before he can say anything, grabs kenma's hand and interlinks their fingers, and snaps a photo.

**to: hinata shouyou**

[image]

it worked

**Author's Note:**

> yaku only knows the meaning of the flower because noya confessed to him with it. (don't mind me, just spreading this ship because everybody needs some yakunoya in their lives)  
thanks for reading <3


End file.
